First Look at Theater Bar, Where Moulin Rouge Meets Cocktail

In this week’s fall nightlife preview, we told you a little bit about Theater Bar, Albert Trummer’s foray into the Cocktail-esque world of flair bartending. As you can now see from our slideshow, the look of the place is less Cocktails and Dreams and more Moulin Rouge. Trummer has installed fabrics and curtains from forties theaters, and an elevated bar. “The bar is a theater,” he tells us. “It’s a stage, where the bartender is included.” Trummer imagines an evening at Theater Bar consisting of a “first act” of live jazz or violin music accompanied by lighter cocktails (maybe a “light vermouth infused with my special elixirs”), shifting into a second act of heavier drinks (Caribbean rum concoctions, etc.), some of them from bartenders he discovered in Italy and Vegas (don’t be surprised if your bartender has Cirque de Soleil experience).

This won’t be a hushed, reverent affair — in fact, Trummer says he’s not above putting an Alabama Slammer on the menu, which will be designed like a playbill, complete with guest bartenders listed as “extras.” Certain cocktails, like the Mariachi, will come with a tableside performance: “Sometimes when you go to cocktail bars it’s no fun anymore — it’s so strict,” Trummer says, though he’s tight-lipped about how, exactly, he’s going to mix things up. “I have some tricks that I have to keep personal.” We’ll wait till the opening date (September 15) to find out what those are; meanwhile, the FDNY can rest assured that none of them involve lighting the bar on fire.